Lets face it, when you hear about the Vikings, the first thing that comes to mind is a group of people who do not like to bath and whose cloths are dirty. The mode of dressing of the Vikings has been contributed to by various factors. You will be surprised to learn that whatever the Vikings wear today is exactly what they were wearing in the past. This document gives a history of the dressing code of the Vikings, this site.
Just like in the rest of the communities, the clothing of the Vikings is also based on the class of the people. The community was made up of the Thralls, Karls and Jarls. The slaves made up the lower class known as Thrall. The Karls made the middle class. This group also contains the people who used to farm and take care of cattle. Its true, the Karls owned pieces of land, but this did not make them rich. The Jarl was made up of people who had large pieces of land and has jewellery.
The weather also played a very huge role when it comes to what the Vikings wear. Today, it is said that Scandinavia can get very cold, and it is also recorded that it was colder before than today. There was a shift of one percent of the average temperature. Since their land was very cold, they had to find the kind of clothes that would help them keep warm. They had to include layers which would prevent them from falling sick.
Men clothes were also made up of Viking tunic, website. The Viking tunic was normally worn over an under-tunic. The material that was used to make them was linen. However, since not all the classes could afford linen, the lower and the middle classes wore clothes that were made from wool. A pair of trousers was used to cover the underwear worn by men. For those who did not want to wear the trousers, their covered the underwear with leggings. Their shoes were made of goat leather. Since the Vikings were fond of sailing, waterproof shies were necessary, now!.
The women wore similarly to what we see our women wearing today, now. The underdresses that were worn by women were also made of linen. The clothes made for women were used to cover their entire body. However, this was not done for any other reason than to keep the women away from cold. Wool was used to make the shorter dress that was worn on top of the long one. A belt was also worn by both genders as shown in this website. Their hats were made of wool, see here!.